Prisoners
by g0wan8765
Summary: A lapidot fic written for a contest, Which I won. Ye!
1. Intro

The waves danced under the gentle embrace of the moon's light, and, seen by no one, a teardrop shaped blue gem slunk to shore in pace with the tides. The gem made its resting place on the shores of a quaint little town by the name of Beach City, where it would lay until sunrise, when a vaguely triangle haired stranger would find it take it somewhere that she had deemed safe enough to hide in, at least for a while.


	2. The Argument

A bright light awoke Peridot from her stasis, she had no need for sleep, but preferred it over doing nothing. She looked over to the pillow where she had lain the gem, and, just as she was expecting, it was glowing, and beginning to rise, slowly at first, but gradually faster, from the pillow. First the torso sprouted out, but the limbs and head followed quickly after. The being cycled through a few used forms before choosing one to her liking, a slim, baby blue body, with a dark blue crop top and long skirt, and bright blue hair. She staggered under her weight, her legs not used to holding her up. The other one couldn't stifle her gasp

The blue one turned around sharply,

"Peridot..." she whispered quietly as her eyes opened wider, terrified. She summoned wings of water from the teardrop gem set in her upper back, and prepared to take off, to run, to escape possible imprisonment at the hands of Homeworld.

"Lapis, wait." Peridot stated sharply and stood up quickly. "I'm not here to put you away. I'm a rogue now too, me capturing you wouldn't change that."

"A rogue? What do you mean?" She asked through gritted teeth, still ready to take off at a moments notice.

"I failed. My job was to check on the cluster, to make sure all the kindergartens were functional, and to deal with the renegade gems here on earth." Peridot responded coolly, but lapis could detect the sadness underneath, the betrayal, now she understood why it hurt lapis so much when the homeworld imprisoned her because she might have been working with the crystal gems, her first prison wardens. "When I called to be rescued, Yellow Diamond decided that I wasn't useful enough to risk anymore ships trying to save. So now I'm just like you, against both homeworld _and_ the crystal gems."

"So what, there gonna come back you know, they aren't just gonna leave the rogues who killed two of the fi-four diamonds! They won't stop until they shatter every gem on this planet, and they won't spare us." She let her wings dissipate back into her gem and slunk down, leaning on the wall. "Why would they."

"Lapis, we've got a good year before Yellow Diamond has her forces mobilized, if w-they even have any good fighters grown by then." Peridot explained coldly, "Given how far that defective pearl got with stone age propulsion based space travel, and how many of the parts I salvaged from my escape pod, I'd give us decent chances of making it out of here before Yellow Diamond gets here."

"You don't really believe that, do you." Lapis said, closing her eyes and tilting her head towards the floor. "Not even Rose Diamond with her army of renegades could defeat blue diamonds scout mission without the majority of them dieing. That group you fought on the ship? That's all of them. Just those four, no, five gems. Yellow Diamond, if she brings an army, will search the entire system, the entire cluster, until she finds us." Tears began filling the corners of Lapis's eyes.

"Lapis Lazuli, it doesn't have to be this way. Jasper was the last gem in years to be able to summon a weapon, we have grown so reliant of the hard-light-destabilizers that most of us can't fight at all without them, and Rose's new human form is immune to them. Not only that, but it has Rose's shield too, so even regular hard light weapons won't work." Peridot explained, moving closer to Lapis. "Rose was making considerable progress in the field of restoring corrupted gem forms, and she still has the ability to heal cracked gems like yours was." Lapis glanced towards her gem, and cringed. "If Rose could restore even a 10% of the corrupt gem forms on earth than that would be enough to defeat Yellow Diamond. I never sent the report about Rose's human form into Yellow Diamond, she'll be sending gems proficient, not in hard light weaponry, but destabilizer weaponry. If we go now, we may be able to convince them to let us join them, if the odds are in our favor."

"How can you say that!?" Lapis shouted at Peridot, "They kept me in a mirror for over 5,000 years, and they _killed_ blue diamond!"

"Lapis, you were never loyal to the diamond authority, _especially_ with blue diamond. You never wanted to come here, and if we can beat yellow diamond we will be able to leave. We won't have to be prisoners anymore."

"Don't talk to me about imprisonment! I've been imprisoned by everyone I ever knew. The crystal gems, homeworld, and you! And what did I do to them, nothing."

"Please Lapis, be reasonable. You're just upset because Jasper could escape and you couldn't, and you didn't even consider that she was a specially trained warrior and you were just a terraformer. You did so well, most gems who want to fuse can't keep it up for more than a day, unless it's fueled by intense love, and you kept it up for two years! you can't fault yourself for that." Peridots face crept into a slight smile.

Lapis's sobs gradually slowed and a slow decrescendo indicated that she had calmed considerably. "Y-you're right, Peri. Let's get going, I'd rather die fighting than as a prisoner of my own sorrow."

Peridot walked over to Lapis, and helped her up. Lapis pulled Peridot into a hug as she stood. "Thank you, Peri." She whispered, and they began walking.

Meanwhile, on the coast of Europe, an orange gem washed onto shore.


	3. Through Rose Colored Glasses

The crystal temple loomed over Lapis Lazuli. The statue in which it was housed was worn with age, bits and pieces of it were strewn over the beach. A curl of stone hair, a hand, the statue was practically gone, it only had five of its eight arms left. Peridot was hiding behind the fallen hand, and had sent Lapis ahead, given that the gems would destroy her hard light form on sight, this was a logical decision. Lapis shuddered at the thought of Peridot or herself getting scourged with Amethyst's whip, pummeled by Garnet's gauntlets, or pierced by Pearl's spear. She walked on.

The crystal gems were off on a mission at the moment, Steven, however, had to stay at home. Peridot planned on waiting until the gems and Steven had left so she could go in and leave a note on his bed or something so they could meet in a more private location. These plans were dashed when Lapis explained that Steven wasn't trained enough to go on most missions, so Peridot sent Lapis in and let her take charge for once.

"Steven!" Lapis said in an urgent whisper, even though the gems weren't there. "Steven! Come on and let me in!"

"Huh?! Lapis! Wh-How did you get here? I thought you were in the ocean with Jasper!"

"Steven, remember when you said that us gems shouldn't fight, that we should all be friends?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Do you or do you not feel the same way now?" Lapis asked urgently.

"Well, yeah, I guess, what's going on, Lapis?"

"Steven..." Lapis sighed "What if I said that there was a homeworld gem that wanted to join the gems and defend Earth?"

"Well, yeah! What has homeworld done to me!" Steven said, and Lapis's face crept into a smile. "'Course I'd let her in, we could always use the help."

"Good, cause I have someone who'd like to see you." Lapis took Steven's hand and lead him to the beach

"Well, where are they?" Steven asked, looking around for the mystery gem.

"Ste-Steven," Peridot stated, her voice cracking uneasily. "Hello?"

"Waugh!" Steven shouted and put up a protective bubble around him and Lapis. "Peridot!? Lapis, get behind be."

"No," Lapis giggled, "She's the gem I was talking about, Steven. She's with us now!" "Really? She kinda tried to kill me and the gems..." Steven said, his voice trailing off and the bubble dissipating. "Can we really trust her?"

"She's like us now, beach summer fun buddy, homeworld's after her too because they think she didn't fight you guys well enough." Lapis explained to Steven "She wants to live and figured the best way to do that would be to team up with someone else."

"Y-yeah, it was only logical." She pushed up her visor, "I knew it was what had to be done."

"Oh, but how will the other's react when they see her?" Steven said, disappointed, "They aren't very accepting of other gems. Remember how they treated you when you escaped the mirror? They tried to kill you. Maybe you should wait a little while..."

"Steven, we were actually hoping _you_ could convince them, if ya' would." Lapis rubbed the back of her neck, and looked off to the side. "Will ya'?"

"Yeah!" He practically shouted, ecstatic, "I'm gonna do it right when they get back!"

"Steven wait!" Lapis said, but it was too late, he was already inside.

Lapis ran into the temple, Peridot following not far behind. Steven was sitting cross legged next to the warp pad, he turned around at the ruckus of Lapis and Peridot slamming the door open.

"Hey!" Steven said and waved at the gems while standing up, "Why are you guys back? I thought we had it all worked out."

"Steven," Peridot put her hand on her forehead and shook her head, "We weren't finished talking. We never got to talk about what we were going to say to them, and how."

"Yeah, you should really let us finish next time, okay?" Lapis leaned onto the door frame, "That might've ended ba-"

Lapis was interrupted by the noise of a warp pad activating.


	4. The Battle

"STEVEN!" Garnet yelled, summoning her gauntlets.

"Get back, Steven!" Pearl shouted taking a long spear out of her forehead placed gem. "What makes you two loyalists think we would let you waltz in and hurt our Steven!."

Amethyst pulled out her whip and pulled steven back behind them, and along with the others, dashed forwards at the two gems in the door, who promptly ran away.

Lapis considered summoning her wings, but decided against it, how could she protect Peridot if she ran. Lapis at least had her wings, Peridot was from modern homeworld, she couldn't summon anything at all.

Amethyst cracked her whip at Lapis, who was considerably farther away, so that her range was used meanwhile was deftly guarding Pearl's attacks with her detachable floating fingers. Garnet was all the while leading the crystal gems in their attacks.

"Please! We don't want to fight!" Lapis screamed, still trying to dodge Amethyst's furious slashes. She turned around to see Peridot barely being able to survive Pearl's graceful, spinning fighting style combined with Garnets brutal timing. Lapis turned to the beach and began to rise her hand.

Ten copies of Lapis and peridot rose out of the waves and began walking towards the gems. The gems each upped their weapons to combat this. Pearl began duel wielding spears, Garnet doubled the size of her gauntlets, and amethyst started shapeshifting into her wrestler alter ego, The Purple Puma.

The battle raged on, with the water copies of Lapis and Peridot fighting to protect the defending gems, but the gems coordination and skill were too good for them. The aquatic visages of Lapis and Peridot were all destroyed, and the gems themselves cornered at the very hand that they had hid behind earlier that afternoon.

"This is the end Peridot." Pearl said, pointing her spear right at the triangle shaped gem inlaid in her forehead, "Earth will never surrender."

"Yeah!" Amethyst shouted, "'Cause we're just that awesome!"

Garnet further increased the size of her gauntlets, and raised them heavily above her head, preparing for a death blow. Lapis pulled Peridot closer to herself and they both tensed, knowing that this was, more likely than not, their final moments together. Garnet brought down her gauntlets and...

*THUNK*

Peridot opened her eyes to see Steven standing over her and Lapis, shield drawn, and protecting them. The segments of the shield gradually turned white and dissipated. "Stop!" Steven said, still standing between the two groups of gems. "They didn't do anything to us! They came here asking for help, and before letting them explain, you just tried to kill them!"

"Steven, move out of the way." Garnet said through gritted teeth, "These are dangerous gems!"

"They tried to kill you Steven!" Pearl cried, "Lapis tried to drown you, and Peridot tried to crush you with that giant hand in the kindergarten, and tried to use one of the destabilizers on you on the ship!"

Lapis stood up and began talking. "I was just trying to get home, and you wouldn't let me! You trapped me in a mirror for over 5,000 years! Even Peridot didn't really want to fight you, Yellow Diamond exiled her after the first sign of possible treason."

"Y-yes, not only that, but you guys kept destroying my robonoids," Peridot defended, "So you started it!"

"Gems shouldn't fight eachother! You both want the same thing!

" Steven shouted at both of the groups, "Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, do any of you want to fight homeworld? Would you be fighting if they weren't attacking?"

"Of course not." Pearl said, a bluish tint appearing on her cheeks.

"There's no such thing as a good war, Steven." Agreed Garnet, as Amethyst scowled and looked away from Steven, a deep purple blush filling her face.

"Lapis, Peridot, do you want to fight them?" Steven turned to the others, "Or are you still with them!"

"Steven," Lapis said, her voice tight with anguish, "Of course we want to be with you."

"Agreed." Peridot responded, "I could never hope to defeat you. Lapis, on the other hand, was able to raise the entire ocean into space with a cracked gem. Now that it's healed, she could kill you all at a swipe of her hand!"

"See?" Steven turned back to the crystal gems, "Neither of you want to fight! So why are you doing it!"

The gems lowered their weapons, but still tensed. Pearl whispered, tears starting to form in the corners of her eye, "Steven..."

Steven started again, "You attacked them, and what did they do? Did they attack back? No, they just ran."

"Steven, we were wrong." Garnet wiped her eyes under her visor. "They needed us, you needed us, and we didn't listen."

"Don't apologize to me, don't apologize at all, just let them join us!" Steven gestured at the cowering gems behind him. "Just let 'em stay! They could help on missions, or baby sit me, or do other stuff! Yeah."

"I dunno you guys," Amethyst began picking her nose, "I think he's right."

"It seems so, what do you think, Pearl." Garnet agreed.

"Steven, sometimes you sound just like your mother. It's what she'd want to do."

"Good," Steven said, helping the others up, and began leading them into the temple."They would've been coming anyways."


	5. Jasper's Return

Lapis and Peridot were sitting on the beach, watching Steven and Connie while the gems were away. They didn't yet trust them enough to take them on missions, but decided they could supervise Steven and his friend.

"Hey Steven!" Lapis shouted to Steven, and made a fart noise.

"Nice one, Lapis!" Steven shouted back, "Why don't you come out and play with us? Peridot can come too!"

"So," Lapis looked over at the gem next to her, "What do you say? It'll be fun!"

"Uhhh," Peridot groaned, "I don't really understand human recreation."

"Me and Steven could help you learn." Lapis giggled, and dragged Peridot along by her elbow "Come on!"

Lapis and Peridot walked up to Steven and Connie. "Uhh, Steven..." Connie rubbed the back of her neck,"Aren't these the two gems that tried to kill you?"

"Well," Steven considered how to explain the situation to his friend, "It's kind of like in your book, when the wind lizard is originally a bad guy, but after being thrown out, joins LIsa and Archimicarus, and helps save the day."

"Oh!" Connie said, excited, "I love redemption arcs!"

Lion walked over to the others, yawned, and lay down stomach up. Peridot visibly recoiled, and her hair stuck out and frizzed from it's natural tetrahedron shape.

"It's alright, Peridot." Steven said, and began rubbing lion's tummy "He doesn't bite!"

Peridot descended a set of five of her floating fingers down into the pink lion's fur. It immediately began growling,

"Aww, LIon, Peridot's alright, she's with us now, no need to worry." Steven explained, still petting.

"Can I?" Lapis asked. "Pet it, that is."

"Sure!" Steven said, and Lapis began rubbing Lions belly lovingly, suddenly lion perked up and looked over to the cliff where the temple lay, where a large, orange figure stood. "What is it, lion?"

Steven was interrupted by LIon picking him and Connie up in his mouth and running with them into the temple.

"Uh oh," Lapis said, looking at Peridot, "Looks like we have company."

"The plan?" Peridot raised an eyebrow,

"The plan." Lapis nodded, and took Peridot by the hand. Both her and Peridots gems began to glow, and they started the dance. PEridot dipped Lapis and then brought her up into a twirl. Lapis took the lead and began doing a swing. The encounter ended with another dip, lead by Lapis, which ended with her and Lapis' forms beginning to turn bright white and meld into eachother.

"Jasper," Turquoise said while standing up, two of her detached floating arms landed firmly on her hips, and her other pair crossed across her chest. "Get down here and let's settle this."

This fusion was much more easy to maintain for Lapis, compared to the frantic struggling of Jasper. This made Peridot not have do much to hold her and Lapis' shared form much at all. The forms four eyes focused on the figure on the cliff, who had just jumped down. "You don't want to do this, Jasper." Turquoise intently growled at The orange gem across from her.

"So, Lapis. You seem to have been fusing a lot lately." Jasper scorned, "Peridot'll find a way to escape, just like I did."

"I don't want to escape!" Peridot's voice screamed from Turquoises mouth, as the pair of arms on her hips flew to Jasper and lifted her into the air by her neck,, surprising Lapis. "You were the one who forced me into coming here, you were the one who forced us to fight here. If not for you, I could be at home, living my regular life."

""Careful, Lapis, she's a feisty one!" Jasper teased maliciously, and Turquoise scowled. The two remaining arms began lifting huge hands of water out of the near by ocean. "Well, if you want to fight, let's fight."

Jasper's helmet was summoned from her gem, set in the middle of her face, where most other's nose would be. She quickly used it to break free of the arms, which retracted to the main body. "Bad move," She whispered, and dashed forwards, summoning Lapis' wings.

Jasper readily head butted at Turquoise, though was defended deftly by the bottom pair of floating arms helping to do the work. All the while, the top pair was bringing a quite large amount of water over to the PLace quite a ways inland.

Just as how she dealt with Jasper before when they were fused into Malachite, they did the same now. Lapis reached to water up to grab Jasper's limbs, and immediately turning into chains. However, instead of dragging her into the ocean, she just pulled tighter and tighter on the chains until, combined with the feverish attacks of the bottom two arms, Jasper's form exploded into a cloud of smoke, and her orange gem lay on the sand.

"Woah!" Steven ran out of the temple shouting, with Connie not far behind, "You just wrecked Jasper! She was all like, hey, fusion's bad, fight me fair, and you were all like, naw son, and smacked her up with water and fists!"

Turquoise blushed at the praise, and defused, splitting into the two separate gems that Steven knew. "That was pretty cool, Steven, but can you do us a solid real quick?" Lapis asked.

"Sure!" Steven responded, "What is it?"

"Just go over and put that gem where you put all the others, okay?" Peridot answered, and scooted a little closer to Lapis.

"You got it dude." Steven dutifully answered the call with a thumbs up, a wink, and a stuck out thumb, and immediately turned around to bubble the gem and send it to the containment room. Just as Steven turned away, Peridot pulled Lapis into a deep embrace, and Lapis met Peridots lips with her own. The kiss was deep, and so passionate that it took all of Lapis' will to not fuse together again. Peridot, separated the kiss, and help Lapis to her feet. "How was that?" Lapis punched Peridot on the arm and winked,

"Exactly to plan." Peridot responded, and took Lapis by the hand, back into the crystal temple.


End file.
